Recently I was watching Comedy Central and came across a political ad aired by Daniel Tosh on his show, Tosh.0.

The ad was aired on his segment, "Is it racist?" The ad aired in 2010 by Tim James while he was campaigning for Governor of Alabama. The ad made the argument that if someone wanted to live in Alabama and drive on their roadways, they needed to learn English. He continued to say, if elected, he would hold the driver's test in English only instead of the 12 languages it was currently held in. He stated that they would save money and that it just "made sense." The video received 262,078 views on YouTube. My theory is that Tim James was targeting the majority of Alabama, close minded English speaking Americans. This is the dialogue of the 33 second video. "I'm Tim James. Why do our politicians make us give driver's license exams in 12 languages? This is Alabama, we speak English. If you wanna live here, learn it. We're only giving that test in English, if I'm Governor. Maybe it's the business man in me, but we'll save money and it makes sense. Does it to you?" He emphasizes "learn it" and there is a long dramatic pause after "it makes sense" before he ends by saying "Does it to you?" He is also bowing his head as if he were thinking during the pause. During the video, he is walking from point to point in his office. The last thing you see is that he himself funded the ad. This video establishes extensive extrinsic ethos through what Tim James does not say in his video. Throughout the video, he walks around the office and keeps a steady eye on his audience. He makes points throughout his video by implying that somehow, citizens who do not speak English effect citizens who do speak English negatively. He knew this would effect his pathos. He uses his background as a businessman to swerve his audience to believe that he has credibility in his actions, effecting ethos. So who is the

majority of Alabama? The businessman in Tim James sought to pinpoint his audience correctly. According to www.city-data.com, a census held in 2010, the same year that Tim James ran for governor, claimed that 96.1% of Alabamas 3,989,795 population were English speaking only. He targets the majority of his audience by enforcing what they already do every day, speaking English and taking for granted all they encounter on a daily basis being in English, and without saying it out right.

Another point that flops under James is that only English speaking citizens should be allowed on the roads. He states that the states roadways would be safer if only English speaking citizens would be allowed on the roads because they would be the only ones who understood what the road signs meant. According to http://www.roaddriver.co.uk/content/safety_tip/58/, the earliest road signs gave information on distance and direction and were in place in Roman times and the Middle Ages. The first international agreement on what road signs should look like was set at the International Road Congress in Rome in 1908. Traffic signs became more important with the development of automobiles and the European system we have today was agreed in the Vienna convention of 1968. In conclusion, road signs have been universally understood way before Tim James and his flop of a campaign.

"We welcome non-English speaking people, who are legally in the U.S., to Alabama. However, if you want to drive in our states, public safety concerns dictate that you need to speak English," James said. "Political correctness may endear you to the Rachel Maddow crowd, but here in Alabama, the safety of our people comes first." I looked up the drivers test in Spanish in Alabama at http://dps.alabama.gov/Home/wfContentTableColumned.aspx?ID=30&PLH1=DLMANUALS.

The section that displays road signs are exactly the same as what are on our roadways, except the words are in Spanish. The manual clearly translates Spanish to English. Next I searched for others opinions on Tim James argument. The issue of printing driver's licenses in different languages could be a legitimate issue, writes CBS News Chief Political Correspondent, the Atlantic's Marc Ambinder, "but the ethnic coding in the ad is unmistakable, especially because it's not the type of thing that voters in Alabama would care about unless someone deigned to bring it to their attention." Ambinder also points out that Alabama could lose billions of dollars in federal transportation funding if it were to stop printing the exams in different languages. He also says that Alabama voters wouldnt have thought about the drivers exam being held in different languages until James blatantly said it on TV. He also stated that they would lose billions of dollars in federal funding, not save money, like the businessman said.

Is offering the test exam in other languages a problem? Yes, according to Tim James. His website references a study that shows a 72% increase in work-related traffic fatalities. He says the report attributes those fatalities "to the fact that increasing numbers of employees and drivers could not read or understand warning signs in English." He doesn't mention the study in his ad. He cites economic costs. "Maybe it's just the businessman in me, but we'll save money and it makes sense," he says. "Does it to you?" Nope, it doesn't, says conservative blogger and former longtime resident of Alabama, James Joyner. Joyner runs the political blog "Outside the Beltway." He reinforces the point I made earlier about road signs being universally understood. "The reality is that road signs are understandable to people who don't read the language," Joyner told The Ticket. "I've driven in places where they don't speak English and managed to get around just fine. The signs are intentionally

pictographs, designed to be intuitively recognizable in an instant from a distance." What about the money angle? University of Alabama professor David Lanoue told the Ticket that it would probably end up costing the state money. "It seems almost certain that any money saved by not administering multi-language tests would be more than offset by the legal fees the state would incur when the law was challenged in court," Lanoue said. Joyner doesn't buy it either, calling the claim "a stretch." "Compared to the cost of additional accidents from untested drivers and the damage to the state's image, it's a drop in the bucket," he said. "If one company decides to go to South Carolina or Tennessee rather than Alabama over this issue, it'll be bad business, indeed." But will the spot be good business for him? "He has been trailing in the polls, and is probably hoping that this issue can help separate him from the pack and make him a favorite among the 'tea party' types," Lanoue said. Well, he's not going to get any Rachel Maddow types (not that he's saddened by this). A blog post on her site calls him "mean." Tim James pandered to anti-immigrant sentiments in order to try to advance in what was and concluded to be a very faltering political campaign.

Sources cited

Alabamas Tim James Wants English Only Driver License Exams http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEPh_KlTyII Alabama Bigger Cities (Over 6000 Residents) http://www.city-data.com/city/Alabama.html Understanding Road Signs http://www.roaddriver.co.uk/content/safety_tip/58/ Alabama Department of Public Safety (Driver License Manuals) http://dps.alabama.gov/Home/wfContentTableColumned.aspx?ID=30&PLH1=DLMANUALS This is Alabama, we speak English http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2010/04/this-is-alabama-we-speak-english/39501/